I have found my groove in wintering. It arrived unexpectedly today when the wind departed and when I found the perfectly old, well-worn acrylic sweater buried on the bottom of a closet shelf. My body is warm. My heart is warm.
I had planned to overhaul the entire closet this week but it has an outside wall and the weather is so frigid that the day long chore will cool the entire house. Not a good idea when Old Man Winter is punishing us with 12* and 8* days and nights.
So instead, I shall make vegetable stock. And cauliflower soup. And most exciting of all, I will make pasta!
These have been on my wintering list but there have been plans pending, both long and short term plans. Bossy Mother Nature has brought them all to a temporary halt but I'm now so much in a wintering frame of mind that I may extend coming out of it beyond warmer weather boundaries. I crave the solitude which extreme cold demands. Strangely, it is in the time alone that I am able to think of others and do for others, small as the thoughts or gifts from it may be.
One gift is sometimes pasta. I love making it. Mine is by hand cranked rollers and cutters. I have three: perfect sized linguine, delicate angel hair, and the very fun curly edged reginetti. Hardest part of pasta making is choosing the cuts; I love them all!
Winter reminds me that life can be so harsh, that wintering can be lovely or lonely, but always, always, always, there is a waiting spring. Time to plant...
Come summer, I'll be wintering in a different yet similar fashion, secluded in air-conditioning to escape the heat. Some very hot random afternoon will likely find me again cranking out ribbons of pasta.
